Whatever pretense the Likud Party still had as the “moderate right,” at least by Israel’s standards, vanished in a flash yesterday with the announcement of the joint Likud-Beiteinu list in the upcoming election. Hawkish Netanyahu at number one, and super-hawk Avigdor Lieberman at number two, the party is well and truly Israel’s War Party.

Likud was already the big party target for the opposition blocs, but it will be doubly so now that it represents the entirety of the Israeli secular far-right, and as the 800 lb gorilla of Israeli politics, every faction, from religious right to far left, is going to be gunning for them.

And that means gunning for their politics, which centers almost entirely on their hawkishness, the one issue that unites Likud-Beiteinu more than anything else. That means the election’s central issue will inevitably be foreign policy.

Iran, to be more specific. Lieberman’s political career has centered around twin goals of making people swear loyalty oaths and attacking Iran. Netanyahu’s last few months in office have been defined almost entirely by his singular determination to start a war with Iran at any cost. With opposition blocs looking to differentiate themselves, expect the opposition to hasty war echoed by former Israeli officials like Meir Dagan to get a lot of backing from Israeli politicians hoping to court moderate voters.

Author: Jason Ditz

Do the fools fail to realise that Adolf Hitler demanded Loyalty oaths and his career was spent pushung Warfare either for Living Room (sound familiar) or attacking his ideological enemies, Communists.

Is there any Difference, Living room Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan. Ask them if they believe in a greater Israel, Including the other side of the Jordan River and Syria!

As for Loyalty, remember the Likud parties origins include people that actually gave the Nazis, British troop movements and strengths during the war fully knowing that Jews were being exterminated at Auschwitz and other Nazi camps!

Aarky

The warmongers will catch a lot of flack in Israel and it won't be reported in the US papers. Even if they do win a majority in the Knesset, they still have a major problem that they don't have the heavy lift capabilities to attack Iran. They will then try to sucker the Israel Firsters in the Congress into backing a US attack.